Pilot
Series Premiere. "Pilot" is the first episode of Season 1, and the first produced hour of Person of Interest. It originally aired on September 22, 2011. The pilot was produced in two forms: a 43 minute broadcast version, and a 56 minute extended cut, available with optional commentary on the Season 1 DVD. Synopsis When the social security number of a young prosecutor comes up, Reese and Finch work together to figure out if their person of interest is the victim or perpetrator. Major Events/Plot Points *Reese and Finch meet. *Reese learns of the Machine. *Reese and Finch begin working together. *The HR storyline begins. *Carter begins pursuing Reese. *Fusco starts working with Reese. *Fusco begins the path to redemption Episode Notes *The yellow box appears to indicate that the person within possesses prior knowledge of the Machine. It appears the Machine can identify and classify target individuals as well as recognize/track/transcribe input and make a final relevant/irrelevant determination in real time. *In the initial 'Pilot' script written by Jonathan Nolan, Finch gives Reese a few hundred dollars to pay him for the time he needed to explain the job he had in mind for Reese. In the script, Reese would eventually use the money to pay for the small hotel room where he shaved and cut his hair. These scenes were cut from the script for the actual episode. The early script also more overtly portrays Reese as suicidal than the final version of the script. *In the extended promo, the servers in the datacenter shown at the end of the episode are labelled "INGRAM sabre blade 2437", which would be a possible reference to Nathan Ingram. In the aired Pilot, as well as in the unaired extended Pilot, the labels were changed into the fictitious brand "Sabre Blade 2437", but are actually Dell PowerEdge SC1425 servers. * The first few scenes of Finch out in public always show him in the company of his security detail, who respond automatically to any perceived threats. By the end of the episode, we see Finch with Reese and the security detail is not shown, suggesting Finch has begun to trust Reese. * When Reese visits Anton and his father's headquarters to acquire some weaponry, he chides one of the young men for holding his gun using a side grip. The side grip, popularized in films such as The Usual Suspects, reduces the accuracy of the weapon by altering its balance and preventing the shooter from using the gun's site. Moreover, when used with automatic weapons, the side grip will cause the shell casing to eject into the shooter's face, causing possible injury. Production Notes *The press release for the episode contained different names for several of the characters. Wheeler was credited as Miller, Lawrence Pope was credited as Alonzo Pope, and Diane Hansen was credited as Diane Bray. This happens when character names fail to "clear", that is when they can be linked to one specific person. Character names in TV series must be common enough there are a number of people in the New York area with the name or so unusual that a name cannot be linked to anyone. *Several location stills and behind the scenes photographs taken by Amanda Carroll who worked as a set designer on the Pilot episode can be found at her smugmug.com portfolio. *Scenes inside the Library were filmed in W. B. Thompson Mansion, also known as Alder Manor, a historic country estate at 1061 N. Broadway, Yonkers. Reese's dumpy hotelroom as well as the fancy one where he wakes up and meets Finch again and Diane Hansen's apartment were also filmed in the building. A New York City landmark at the corner of East 30th St and Lexington Ave stands in as Library exterior. Bloopers and Continuity errors *Although the events in the episode are supposed to be taking place in September, the time stamp of the surveillance feed shows April 14, 2011 (04-14-11). Moreover, the same date can be seen on different surveillance feeds along with different timestamps, even though the storyline stretches over several days. *The first scene with Reese in the courthouse spying on Diane Hansen is a mirrored sequence: **Reese's hair points in the opposite direction. **He's wearing the ear piece in his left ear. **The bandage is on his left hand. **The wall he is hiding behind is to his left hand side. *In the scene where Hansen blows off Wheeler in the courthouse, the film has been reversed. *In the following scenes with Hansen talking to Fusco, Reese is standing at the same corner and the wall is to his right hand side. Hair, ear piece, and bandage have also switched back to their normal position. *In the same scene at the courthouse, Reese is holding his cellphone in his right hand. When the image changes to close up, the phone is in his left hand. *Reese said he shot Stills with Fusco's gun which wasn't the case. Fusco's gun is a silver one and Reese actually used a black one. *In the end, one corrupted police was arrested by Carter and he said he only knew it was "some guy in a suit". However, every time he saw Reese, Reese was wearing a long black jacket. That's no way that he would know Reese later wears suits as costume. *Carter's arm moves about half a meter along the car door when the camera switches angles while she is arresting Azarello. *In the fake ID Reese used, we can see "F" as female in the sex line. Music *"Angel" by Massive Attack - during John Reese's intervention to stop Stills and his men. Trivia *On his fake driver's license Reese uses the alias "James J. Manzione". *In the hotel in which Reese sleeps (before waking up in a different location), he is watching scenes from Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa before falling asleep. This is the first scene that establishes Reese as a ronin, a wandering warrior, as would later be elaborated in "Wolf and Cub". *Reese shoots ten (10) people in this episode, including Fusco. Only Stills is fatally wounded. *As Reese is hacking into Diane's e-mail account, a list of messages is displayed. The names of the senders include Peter Bishop, Charles Francis and Philip Broyles, all characters from J.J. Abrams' Fringe. The other name, Emily Gaunt, is Fringe's charge scenic artist. *The producers hid an Easter Egg in this episode that links back to the ABC series "Lost". The set of mysterious numbers that occur over and over again during the series' six year run are shown in the video from a car cam. *This is the only episode in which Jim Caviezel's voice is used for the "stay tuned" announcement at the end of the show. All others use Michael Emerson's voice. *Carter's station house is identified as the 8th Precinct in the Pilot. In later shows it would be designated as the 3rd. Precinct. Transcript Quotes *"When you find that one person who connects you to the world, you become someone different, someone better. But when that person is taken from you, what do you become then?" (Reese) *"That's what I'm offering you. A chance to be there in time." (Finch) *"We have more in common than you'd think. I've been watching you for a long time, John." (Finch) *"I guess you could call me a concerned third party." (Finch) *"You need to understand, Mr. Reese, the information I have is incomplete, but it’s never wrong. You need to know what it would be like to be forced to listen to someone get murdered and not be able to do anything about it." (Finch) *"You left the government because they lied to you. I never will." (Finch) *"They will come looking for you. The police, the Mob your old friends at the CIA. If you stay and we continue to do this, sooner or later both of us will probably wind up dead, actually dead, this time." (Finch) *"I said I would tell you the truth. I didn't say you would like it" (Finch) *"Ask me to stay, and I will" (Reese) es:Pilot 101 101 Category:Season 1 Episodes Category:Season Premiere